On March 8th, 2022, Dominica’s new emerging social enterprise, WePlanet Inc., with the support of Optimum Legal, officially became incorporated as a non-profit company in Dominica. The team of five young female co-founders- Christianna Paul, Kyanna Dyer, Kyra Edwards, Mhea Bardouille, and ZebadiJah Maxwell, celebrated this achievement on the recently passed International Women’s Day.
Through their passion for technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship, they are breaking the bias and using their skills in information technology, computer science, and business to encourage and reward citizens for making small eco-friendly choices to create a climate-resilient Caribbean community. After participating in the 2020 Caribbean Science Foundation Coding Workshop, the WePlanet Inc. team joined forces to bring their project idea to reality. They eventually emerged as semi-finalist in the 2021 Technovation Girls – a global competition for girls in STEM, finalists in the 2021 Global Environmental Education Partnership (GEEP) Youth Innovation Challenge, winner of the OECS Island Ideas Challenge and recipient of the Dominica Youth Business Trust’s Social Enterprise Incubator Grant.
WePlanet Inc.’s vision is to create a Caribbean community that is encouraged to be environmentally conscious by participating in daily eco-friendly activities, which leads to climate resiliency and a cleaner environment for all. One of the key objectives of the Social Enterprise is to foster environmental consciousness amongst persons in the Dominica and the Caribbean by extension.
WePlanet Inc. achieves this objective by creating innovative solutions to encourage all sectors to be more environmentally conscious and make small but positive changes in their daily lives. One of these solutions is the creation of a mobile application to encourage and reward citizens for living eco-friendly lifestyles. The functionalities of the mobile app are specially curated to motivate, educate and encourage everyone, including businesses in the private sector to implement eco-friendly strategies and choices. App users earn points and are rewarded for doing simple actions such as shopping with a reusable bag instead of disposable plastics, buying an eco-friendly product and even participating in the App’s Eco-Challenges. The mobile application is currently in its beta-testing phase. The public is encouraged to install the app (through the web at ‘weplanet.app’) and give critical feedback where needed. Private and public sector entities are invited to join the WePlanet family as Eco-Partners and Eco-Sponsors. WePlanet Inc. will officially launch all features of the mobile application to the public on June 4, 2022, in celebration of “World Environment Day”.
“WePlanet’s mission is to protect and improve the natural environment in the Caribbean for present and future generations by making small positive changes in our lives; so expect us to do just that. The success of this non-profit relies a lot on collaboration, especially within the business community, as tackling a problem as big as Climate Change is not a one-woman or man show. We look forward to providing action-oriented solutions and making a positive impact in our region,” Paul said.
Overall, WePlanet Inc. acts on its motto, “Small Actions, Big Change”; the company believes that consistent small actions will lead to big changes, if we all play our part. One way the company will encourage and ensure as many people as possible take part in eco-friendly activities is by using its incentive-based model to reward those who make eco-friendly choices.
Individuals interested in learning more about WePlanet Inc. or how to partner with this organization are asked to visit WePlanet’s Facebook page or website for more information (@weplanet767 or weplanet767.org).
